Irish Beat Themselves Against Vols
UHND.com - Frank Vitovitch
11/3/2001
Notre Dame, Ind (UHND) - Against the seventh ranked Tennessee Volunteers, Notre Dame had a chance to show the college football world that despite their mediocre record, they still could compete with one of the nation's top teams.
The Irish however responded by killing themselves with costly turnovers, horrible red zone offense, and pitiful third down defense. A fumble at the Tennessee one yard line by Arnaz Battle combined with another fumble by freshman Ryan Grant that was returned for a touchdown gave Notre Dame a combined 0 points in two trips into the red zone.
In three trips into the red zone in the first half, Notre Dame came away with a total of three points. Another scoring opportunity was also squandered when Carlyle Holiday got sacked on a third down play that put the Irish out of field goal range. The lone points came on a Nicholas Setta 41 yard field goal at the end of the second quarter. The other two were the previously mentioned fumbles by Battle and Grant.
Third down defense was another huge problem for the Irish as they allowed Tennessee to convert on more than 50% of their third and longs. Clifford Jefferson in particular was targeted on third and long as Kelly Washington had a field day on third downs.
All of this added up to Notre Dame's second consecutive loss while still winning the time of possession battle. The chances were there this week, but the play calling in scoring situations was as usual predictable and easily stopped.
Despite all of this however the Irish were in the game until the final two minutes. After scoring on a 17 play drive that ended in the Irish's lone offense touchdown of the game, a Tony Fisher two yard run, and a successful two point conversion, the Irish defense stopped the Tennessee offense and gave their offense the ball back with three minutes and thirty seconds left.
On the ensuing Tennessee punt however, Vontez Duff was called for may be the worst call I have ever seen in a Notre Dame game. Duff was moving his hands around positioning himself to field the punt and clearly did not signal for a fair catch or even come close to it. The official on the spot however called him for an illegal fair catch. Duff had a nice return in the works before the play was dead despite fumbling it to start.
Two plays later a Carlyle Holiday pass was tipped at the line and intercepted. The Notre Dame defense held strong on first and second down forcing Tennessee into a third and nine. Just as throughout the rest of the game though, Tennessee converted and scored a touchdown 4 plays later on a Casey Claussen bootleg on fourth and goal.
This game showed that Notre Dame has the talent to play with the best teams in country. This game also showed that while the talent is there, the coaching is not. Bob Davie and staff was out coached by the Phillip Fulmer and his Tennessee staff.
Ho0w many first down passes were there? Not many, if any. How many times did Notre Dame either go option on first down followed by a run up the middle or run up the middle on first and follow it with an option? Very often. There were a few nice calls in the game however. The Arnaz Battle reverse that resulted in a fumble was a nice call that ended badly. A couple fake option passes were called that worked pretty good as well. The few good calls however were far outnumbered by the bad ones though.
Overall it was a very disappointing game because Notre Dame had a very real chance to win it and it reality they should have. They did more to make themselves loose than Tennessee. Tennessee played a fine game, but a well coached, well disciplined team would not have scored only three points in four trips into the red zone in front of their home crowd. This game was just another example of why Notre Dame needs a coaching change.